Charlotte Knollys

The Hon. Elizabeth Charlotte Knollys (5 January 1835 – 24 April 1930)[1] was an English courtier and member of the Knollys family. She was Lady of the Bedchamber, and the first woman private secretary, to Princess Alexandra of Denmark, later Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, consort of Edward VII of the United Kingdom.[2]

Biography

The daughter of Sir William Thomas Knollys, a successful military figure and Comptroller of the Household to Edward VII the Prince of Wales, and his wife, Elizabeth St. Aubyn, Charlotte Knollys was born in London on 5 January 1835. Her parents lived at 13 Portman St. in Marylebone.[3] At 18, was sent into Alexandra's service as a Lady of the Bedchamber.[2] The Princess of Wales came to rely heavily on her. By the late 1880s she began to perform duties as a private secretary. Alexandra required her services more when she was in mourning, for example when her beloved son, Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, died in 1892.

Upon Edward's ascension to the throne, when Queen Victoria died in 1901, Charlotte was officially installed at Alexandra's side. The new King Edward VII granted her the style the Honourable and precedence as the daughter of a Baron, after her brother became Viscount Knollys.[4] She performed all duties as private secretary and was also in Alexandra's complete confidence. However, this came at the price of having little freedom, a price which grew much more oppressive when Edward died in 1910. Alexandra, now Queen Dowager, shut herself away in seclusion at Sandringham House, in Norfolk, England, her favourite home. Charlotte wrote in a letter dated a year before Alexandra's death in 1925:

"H.M. is so fond of Sandringham...she readily falls in with the doctor's advice that she should not tire herself with all the hurry and bustle of the Season...As far as I'm concerned, I am a 'Cockney born and bred', and down here I can never see my friends and relations and seem quite cut off from all the world." (Letter to an unknown Gentleman; Private Manuscript collection)

Later years

Her leave of service came upon Alexandra's death in 1925. During her service, she was credited as the first woman private secretary to the Sovereign, and the first person not of royal blood to enter the Queen's boudoir without invitation. She was presented with a gold medal after saving Alexandra from a fire.[1]

Death

She died, aged 95, unmarried, at her flat in South Audley Street, London in 1930.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Death of Miss Charlotte Knollys". The Times. London, England. 26 April 1930. p. 10 – via The Times Digital Archive 1785–2008. On one occasion, by her promptitude and presence of mind, she saved her Majesty and, indeed, the whole household from imminent peril. This was early one morning in December, 1903, when a beam in Miss Knollys's bedroom at Sandringham, which was just under the floor of the Queen's room, caught fire, and Miss Knollys gave the alarm. For this service she was presented with a gold medal bearing the grateful inscription, "To our dear Charlotte."
  2. 1 2 Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 2212. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
  3. ↑ London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906; for Elizabeth Charlotte Knollys; Westminster St Marylebone; baptised 5 February 1835; born January 5, 1835
  4. ↑ "No. 27293". The London Gazette. 12 March 1901. p. 1763.
  5. ↑ Civil Registration event: Death
    Name: KNOLLYS, Elizabeth C.; Registration District: St. George Hanover Square; County: London; Year of Registration: 1930; Quarter of Registration: Apr-May-Jun; Age at death: 95; Volume No: 1A/Page No: 449 as per death extract from GRO at Findmypast.co.uk, giving age at death as 95
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